85 Fluoride Prevention Plants set up in Surguja district: Govt

The State Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has set up 85 Fluoride Prevention Plants in Surguja district to ensure pure drinking water supply in villages affected with excessive fluoride content in drinking water, officials said.

The Department has also ensured capping of 29 hand pumps that have been identified as supplying fluoride contaminated water.

Drinking water in these regions have been supplied through Nal-Jal Yojana, Sthal Jal Yojana, Solar Pumps, sanitary dugwell or new hand pumps.

67 villages of Surguja district have so far been found affected by fluoride contaminated water supply.

In May last year, the State Government established a total of 105 ‘Flouride Removal Plants’ in settlements of 44 villages in Bastar division.

In September last year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had approved Rs 190 crore under the State Government’s ‘Nal-Jal Scheme’ for eliminating salinity in water supply being made to nearly 152 villages of Bemetara district from Shivnath River.

The State Government will soon be constructing a conventional Water Treatment Plant at Birkoni in the district.

The plant is expected to process 2.5 million litres of water per day. The cost of the project is an estimated Rs 79.19 lakh.

The project is being executed by Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (CSIDC) which had already floated a render for installation and commissioning of the plant.

Till September last year, the the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) established as many as 227 ‘fluoride prevention plants’ to ensure supply of hygiene drinking water in fluoride-affected villages of Chhattisgarh.

PHED officials informed that the Government has built 26 district-level laboratories in the State for checking fluoride content in ground water sources.

The data as per laboraratary examinations showed that out of 56,388 samples collected from groundwater resources across the State in three years, 328 samples were found high in fluoride content.

The Government spent more than Rs 5.62 crore during 2012-13 for implementation of various schemes formulated to ensure purity of the drinking water to the people living in fluoride affected areas.

The shocking data of samples tested for fluoride content in each of the district-level laboratories in 26 districts of the State are as follows- 7541 in Jashpur district, 5495 in Ambikapur district, 5102 in Sukma district, 4292 in Durg district, 3754 in Rajnandgaon district, 3386 in Raipur district, 3365 in Narayanpur district, 3253 in Kabeerdham district, 2711 in Korba district, 2431 in Dhamtari district, 2258 in Bilaspur district, 1876 in Bijapur district, 1788 in Koriya district, 1731 in Dantewada district, 1466 in Kanker district, 1387 in Raigarh district, 1079 in Bastar district, 922 in Janjgir Champa district, 547 in Balrampur-Ramanujganj district, 500 in Gariaband district, 420 Bemetara district, 388 in Mahasamund district, 373 in Mungeli district, 183 in Balod district and 144 in Surajpur district.